Tiny Arcade Update

by Ken BurnsMarch 15, 2016

Thank you all for your support for the Tiny Arcade! We're continuing to work hard to get these produced and out to you soon!

Development Status

We've shipped out 15+ developer units and a number of great developers are working on games for this and we're also working internally on the core libraries for this. The following video shows the current state of the Tiny Arcade, including several new games and the video player functionality:

One of our backers, Eike Decker, has created an emulator to make development easier, below is a screenshot of this with his Tiny Tino game running in it.

Tiny Arcade Emulator running Tiny Tino

Note: If you're a game developer or a hard core Arduino developer that wants to contribute games, send me an email (kburns@tiny-circuits.com) with your qualifications and we'll talk with you more about it.

Production Status

Production is going well, unfortunately we have a bit of a delay on getting one of the components (the joystick itself) for the flex board, this will cause a minor delay in getting the arcades finished (hopefully we'll be shipping most in April) but we're trying to work around this as much as possible, see the below section for more details.

TinyScreen+

Production on the TinyScreen+ board is complete, we've produced about 1200 of these and they're ready to go - if you've been following our story, you know that we make our own electronics in our factory in Akron, Ohio, USA, below are some pics of the TinyScreen+ being made

Dave does an inspection before the TinyScreen+ Panel goes into the oven

Panel after reflow soldering, before screen attachment

TinyScreen+ boards after screen attachment and final test. Ready to go!

Flex Board Status

Flex boards assembled

The flex boards are the next important electronic piece for the Tiny Arcade, and has the joysticks, switches, volume knob, microSD card connector and speaker attached to it. We have the all the major components for this except for one, the joystick. Our order for these got delayed a bit due to Chinese New Year and the delivery for these is mid April.

That being said, we do have 100+ joysticks and will be producing the initial units using these, and still hope to get these shipped out to early backers by the end of March / early April.

To help minimize the impact of this delay, we plan to have the production wrapped up on all the other arcade parts before then, then jump full force into building up the flex boards the moment the joysticks come in, to get these built up as quickly as possible. We hope to be able to start shipping the majority of the units within a week or so after the joysticks come in, so hopefully by late April / early May.

Arcade Cabinet Status

Laser cut arcade cabinets lined up

The laser cutter is cranking out cases as we speak, the design for this is done and we shouldn't have a problem getting these made in time.

Updated 3D printed cabinet

For the 3D printed premium version, we continue to tweak the enclosure to get this to a final printable state (which encompasses the latest versions of the the flex board and TinyScreen+), we hope to have this complete in the next two weeks and order the production 3D prints by the end of the month.

Surveys

We've held off sending out surveys till we get a firmer ship date, we plan to send these out in the next two weeks. These surveys will allow you to specify things about your order, such as what type of material you would like this made off (clear acrylic, black acrylic or wood), as well as get your current shipping address. You will also have the option to additional items to your order, like a second case or additional units.

Thanks again for all your support! The Tiny Arcade has been a lot of fun and we can't wait to get them out to everyone!!!